An extraordinary and fragile Roman glass bowl, dating from circa A.D. 300, broke the world record price for a piece of glass sold at auction July 14th in London. Selling to a telephone bidder at Bonhams' Sale of Highly Important Antiquities, The Constable-Maxwell Cage-Cup fetched £2,646,650. It was once used as a lamp and had been carved from a solid piece of glass.
Following the sale, Joanna van der Lande, head of antiquities at Bonhams, said: "The Cage-Cup is exceptionally fragile, cut from a single block of glass. It would have been clear but has become iridescent due to a reaction between the earth it was buried in and the glass. Its probable use was as an oil lamp suspended by a collar around the rim. It's really a very highly prized piece."
The cup was last sold in 1997 as part of a collection formed for investment purposes by the British Rail Pension Fund. At that time, the cup sold for £2,311,500.
Well, shouldn't the prcodut of those workers go to support their children, and their children's children, and their children's children's children, and so on in perpetuity?Eventually we'll have a whole new leisure class made up entirely of those whose ancient ancestors produced some piece of intellectual "property." Because, unlike real property, which will some day whither and crumble to dust (even the pyramids), intellectual property doesn't have to have an expiry date. All we need is an army of lawyers to copyright every permutation possible, and we're set.
Posted by: Rabihatun | April 26, 2012 at 11:41 AM